


Pizza with the wolves!

by MilkC



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Jungle Fury, Power Rangers Wild Force
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, RJ needs a break, Short One Shot, Wolf ranger buddies!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:48:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28429527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MilkC/pseuds/MilkC
Summary: The silver and purple wolf rangers meet each other for the first time.
Relationships: Robert "R. J." James & Merrick Baliton - Relationship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Pizza with the wolves!

"Where is the extra pizza sauce!" RJ muttered to himself. The purple ranger looked around for a few moments then realised it was right next to his dough the whole time! "Oh, there it is..." he sighed but still managed to keep his gentle smile across his face.

He whipped up a pepperoni pizza and carefully placed it into his brick pizza oven. Already the flames were cooking it slowly, baking the outer edges of the crust a beautiful golden brown. In the centre the pepperoni had started to crisp and curl, fat dripping down onto melting, sizzling cheese. Pizza char from the flames floated through the oven with some of it even landing on the already crisp pizza.

"Now I just got to wait..." he said as he looked around the room, expecting something to happen or someone to say something. "... Oh yeah, it's just me here." The wolf ranger had just remembered that he was the only one working today. He had given the others a well needed break and they all went to the beach for a day of relaxation. To be honest he also needed a break but put his friends before him. The past few days had been quite hectic with a large increase of customers since it was 'that time of year' again. Him and his team had all been working overtime. Luckily, today wasn't that busy so he could afford to take a little break occasionally.

After a few minutes of waiting, he could tell by his superior sense of smell (makes sense since he is a wolf ranger after all) that the pizza was ready to be taken out of the oven. He went and grabbed his wooden pizza peel which was laying in the corner of the room and made the pizza slide onto it perfectly. Skilfully, he manoeuvred it out of the scorching oven and onto a nearby wooden board. You could still see the cheese sizzling perfectly underneath the large slices of pepperoni. Still in his chefs' uniform, he went out into the dining area and served the customers the mouth-watering pizza. As he walked away, he heard their mumbling voices commenting on the pizza... and thank goodness they were all positive. This is what he needed right now, just a feeling of happiness. He wandered back to the kitchen and looked at the clock. '6:40pm' it read. Good, it was almost closing time so all he had to do is wait for these last customers to finish up and he was finally done for today! Theoretically, someone could come in right now or exactly right before 7pm, say 6:59pm and RJ would be obliged to serve them, He just hoped that no one did this as it would be very annoying to say the least.

It was now 6:55pm and the customers had finished their pizza and were already out the door. RJ swiftly took their sauced stained plates and literally chucked them into the dishwasher. This took no longer than 2 minutes and he stood there, leaning against a brick pillar watching the door. Outside, he could see the bustling streets of Ocean Bluff. The bright street lights towered over the busy road below as noisy cars drove by. People holding multiple shopping bags walked along the concrete sidewalk. There were lots of people doing this and they all seemed to know where they were going... except this one man. This one person seemed to catch RJ's eye the most. He was fairly tall, had dark hair and was clothed in a snazzy blue jacket. This guy was just standing there, looking around aimlessly. Then he turned to the way off the pizza place. RJ had a sign out there that said what time they were closing and he was starring right at it. The wolf ranger crossed his fingers behind his back and hoped he didn't come in,

Then the mysterious man diverted his eyes away from the sign and his attention was set on the door. When the mentor saw this, he simply banged his head lightly against the brick pillar. Of course a customer comes in 3 minutes before closing time, of course! The door swiftly swung open and the normally calm and collected mentor forced a smile.

_The man walked in and looked at RJ who still was leaning against the pillar_ "Hey... uh am I too late? I saw the sign and it said you close at 7pm." he looked at the clock on the wall "It's 6:58pm right now, are you still open?"

_RJ sighed and went over to him_ "As long as the door is open, I am obliged to serve you." he said as he hid the keys that he had in his hand "Take a seat, anywhere."

He did as he was told and took a seat. A menu was in front of him already and he scanned it up and down looking at what type of pizzas they had.

"So... are you new around here? I haven't seen you in town before." he said as he peeked over at what the customer was looking at.

_He looked up from his menu_ "Yeah, I haven't been here before but I'm not here forever... I'm just passing through the neighbourhood."

"You're travelling the world, huh?"

"That is basically it. I just wander around, finding new places and trying new things. I go wherever the wind takes me." he said as he went back to looking at the menu

"I have always wanted to live like that, just travelling the world by myself. No home, no restrictions, no limits. But I have a lot of responsibilities here so that's not going to happen any time soon..." RJ was starting to like this customer. He was like a free wolf, something RJ aspired to be. "Hey man, what's your name?"

"I'm Merrick, Merrick Baliton." he handed him back the menu. "Can I get a Hawaiian pizza please."

"Merrick Baliton... I swear I've heard that name before." he then noticed the menu that Merrick was holding out to him. "...Oh yeah, course."

"Where have you heard my name before?" he asked, curiously

"I don't know, it's just familiar... anyways I won't keep you waiting any longer, I'll go get you that pizza." he smiled and scuttled back to the kitchen

Merrick watched as the Pai Zhuq master made his way to the kitchen at the back. He had forgotten to tell him his name, but he didn't bother with it too much. Hey, Merrick would probably ask for it later. 

RJ got to work making a fresh Hawaiian pizza. Personally, he wasn't fond of pineapple of pizza, however he was fond of banana on pizza which is much more questionable than some pineapple on pizza. He tossed his dough in the air and started spinning it to make it a good, even circular shape. Merrick looked over and was mesmerised by his technique. He was doing so effortlessly and so perfectly; it was absolutely amazing to watch. After a few good spins, he plopped the dough back onto the floured surface and got all the topping out. Sauce went on first and he dumped a whole bunch of it in the middle and then spread it out with a large spoon. Next was the cheese. The chef sprinkled the mozzarella onto the ruby red sauce and the shreds of cheese sat on top, neatly, of it. He got out some pineapple chunks and they plopped down nicely. A bit of pineapple juice did come out but that would make the pizza ever so slightly sweeter. The last topping to add was the ham. The thin slices were placed down carefully onto all the other toppings. He was being careful to not move around the other pizza toppings because they were already in the perfect places. Yes, RJ is quite the perfectionist when it comes to making pizzas. Once again, he grabbed his pizza peel and then slid his pizza onto it, and then slid it off into the oven.

After he knew the pizza was cooking safe in the oven, he went upstairs to grab something. This Merrick guy, he remembered that someone had told him about him. In the corner in the room, there was a small shelf. It didn't have much on it, only a few random things like a cool sculpture of a small pig, a full group picture of him and his team and a miniature plant, which is most likely dead since RJ had forgotten to water it. There was also a little black book, tucked away behind the group picture. RJ quickly took it from behind the frame and started to quickly flick through the pages. He flicked through them as fast as his fingers would go. 

Then, he abruptly stopped.

There was a page that caught his eye the most and he looked at it for a good while. Without stopping for a second, he then rushed back downstairs to the kitchen. By that time, his pizza had cooked nicely, and he took it out of the oven. Quickly but carefully, he placed it onto a a plate and went out to the eating area.

"Hey, here's your pizza!" the ranger exclaimed. As he handed him his food, he got out the black book from his pocket and held it next to him.

_Merrick looked down at the gorgeous pizza. It was still steaming hot which was a good first impression._ "Thanks man... hey I didn't catch your name earlier."

"Oh yeah, right. I'm RJ."

"Nice to meet you RJ." Merrick said with a smile

"Alright, I'll leave you to it then..." RJ proceeded to go over to the cash register to count today's earnings. As he was doing this, he would also sneak a quick look at the little black book in his hands and then look directly back at Merrick and then back at the book and then- well you probably get the gist of it. 

Merrick was just enjoying his cheese pizza while starring off into space when he noticed RJ giving him strange looks for whatever reason. The looks were in intervals, like he was comparing him to something he was looking at. He put down his pizza and just stared at him straight. Sooner or later the wolf ranger would notice.

RJ kept switching between counting the money and peeking at the book and Merrick. By now, he had lost count of the money and was solely focused on trying to figure out if he was the same guy in the book. After a few more cycles of RJ comparing Merrick with the person in the book, he noticed that Merrick was staring at him. 

"H- hey!" the purple ranger said with a nervous wave

"Hey..." Merrick squinted his eyes, still starring at RJ "Why do you keep looking at me like that? It's kind of creepy you know..."

_RJ went over to him_ "Oh sorry, it's just that..."

"It's just what?"

"Well..." RJ paused for a second then he threw the black book on the table. It was on the exact page he was looking at. On that particular page, there was a vague picture of a man. Even though it was quite vague, you could make out some features on the drawing which looked similar to Merrick's features, like his facial hair. Next to the man was a neat drawing of a certain Power Ranger. It was in fact the Lunar Wolf ranger, the other wolf ranger from the Wild Force team. Unlike the drawing of him, his suit was in vibrant colours which managed to still stand out even though it was lying in a dusty old book for a long time. The blue and silver on the suit complimented each other perfectly and the gold stripes across the middle of the suit where perfectly in line.

_Merrick sat there, in awe as he gazed at the drawing of himself and his ranger form. He would of never expected that there was a drawing of him in a book!_ "Wow, that is an extraordinary drawing!" he exclaimed as a huge smile appeared on his face

_RJ could tell by the smile on his face that there was a connection between the drawing and Merrick. He was fairly good at figuring out things like these._ "You know, it kind of looks like you."

_Merrick's eyes were now wide open after hearing RJ's comment. He couldn't just tell this random guy that he was a ranger! That would be stupid, downright absurd!_ "Does it look like me!? I mean, it's kind of off..." his eyes darted to the facial hair that looked exactly like his, looks like someone should have had a shave- "Maybe the facial hair looks similar, but anyone could have facial hair like that!" at the end, his voice started to go in a higher pitch than it was before

_When the secretive, silver wolf rangers' voice went all high and squeaky this was a clear sign something was not right. RJ also sensed something in his 'aura' that he was hiding something important._ "I know you're hiding something-" 

"Why in the world would I be hiding something!?" he said with nervous laughter

_The purple ranger’s response to this was just a simple sigh._ "If it makes you feel any better..." he said as he took something out of his pocket. It took him a while to find it and after a few minutes of him frantically searching his pockets he had found it. It was a device, and electrical device and he placed it on the table. This device was about the same size of a flip phone, if not bigger and it had a peculiar wolf head on the top.

_As RJ placed this device down, Merrick's nervousness turned back into a surprised expression._ "Is that... A MORPHER!?"

"Yes, it is." he said, with a smirk

"Wait a minute... you're that wolf ranger I've heard a lot about!"

"I am... you have heard of me? From whom?" he asked, curiously 

"From... well everywhere! I have heard people talking about some team of rangers, all animal based... and someone mentioned a wolf! ...You're the wolf ranger!" he exclaimed in realisation 

_RJ_ _chuckled._ "Wasn't it obvious!" he said very much sarcastically

_Merrick let out a little laugh. If RJ was a ranger as well, it was definitely ok to share his secret identity._ "I have something to show you as well-" Merrick immediately got out his Lunar Caller and put it on the table, right next to the Wolf morpher. The Lunar Caller was very much similar to the Wolf morpher as it had a wolf head on it and was about the same size of a flip phone.

_RJ looked at the pair of morphers in all their glory, they looked so much alike aside from the colour scheme._ "So, you are the Wild Force Lunar wolf ranger!"

"Guilty as charged... sorry I tried to hide it from you, I'm a secretive person."

"It's alright, it makes sense. You don't just want a random person you've never met in your life to know your identity, do you?"

"No, you don't." the Lunar wolf ranger said with a chuckle as he ate more of his pizza. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a Pool table tucked away in the farthest corner of the room. Merrick was quite good at Pool; however, his skills are rusty since he hasn't played in a while. "Is that a Pool table?" he asked directly to RJ as he finished the last bits of his Hawaiian pizza

RJ looked over at what Merrick talking about and looked at his Pool table. No customers or staff really used his table, he had bought it for that purpose, but it was just sitting there for decoration. It was very dusty and looked like it hadn't had any action in months. The Pool balls looked like they had been stuck in the same triangular formation for an awfully long time. The two cues were that the table had were gathering a lot of dust and dirt in their respective corner.

"Yeah, that is Pool table... no one ever uses it though, so it just sits there adding a bit of 'zest' to the already zesty room. You know, I used to be rather good at Pool in High school, we had a club, and we use to play against each other in semi- friendly tournaments. I say 'semi' because I distinctly remember some of the matches got heated. I won loads of those tournaments... but I'm very rusty, no one here plays."

"I used to play Pool, and if I say so myself, I was the master..." Merrick exclaimed confidently as he got up from his wooden seat

"Master you say... prove it to me then... I challenge you to a game of Pool!" 

"I accept your challenge RJ!" he said dramatically as he made his way to the table

RJ followed behind Merrick and grabbed the cues. As he grabbed them, he noticed a small shiny thing on the floor. It was a penny, and it was just lying there. He bent down, picked it up and pocketed it. He threw one to Merrick whilst keeping one for himself. 

_Merrick grabbed his cue mid-air and examined the red and yellow Pool balls._ "So, how do we decide who goes first?"

"Hmmmmm..." he muttered to himself as he heard Merrick's comment "Wait, I may have something." RJ then took the shiny penny out earlier and put it in his palm

_Merrick knew exactly where this was going_ "I choose heads, no tails... no, heads!" 

RJ took this into account and flipped the coin. It kept flipping crazily mid-air until it landed flat back into RJ's palm. Then, RJ flipped it on to his wrist just for good measure.

Merrick waited anxiously for the penny to drop. He starred at the penny and watched it all the way until it landed safely in RJ's hand.

_RJ peeked at the coin, now on his wrist._ "Haha... it's tails!" he said as he raised his arms in the air in celebration 

"Ah, dammit..." Merrick said with a slow sigh

"Red or yellow?" RJ said as he went to point his cue at the white ball

"Red." 

RJ readied his cue at the white ball. He aimed for the seven red and yellow balls in the perfect triangular formation. For a second, he closed his eyes and focused hard. He imagined how he was going to hit the ball perfectly so it would scatter all the other balls. Then, he opened his eyes and hit the ball. The power in the strike managed to successfully scatter the balls all around the billiard table. Surprising none of them went in but he was satisfied.

_Merrick eyed him, but it wasn't a 'suspicious' eye, more like an intimidating your opponent eye'. It was his turn and he saw a red ball close to the hole, and he managed to hit it into the hole_ "Yesss..." he said with a little celebration and a smile

"Don't be so confident!" the purple Jungle Fury ranger retorted jokingly. He then saw a yellow ball and effortlessly knocked it in. "That's how you do it there!"

"Oh, and I'm being told to not be so confident!" Merrick then hit in a red ball also effortlessly

_Without a word, RJ attempted to hit a yellow ball I'm but missed, guess he didn't get his angles right._ "Whoops-" 

_Again, Merrick went up to hit a ball and now knowing that RJ missed, he confidently hit a ball in._ "I'm in the lead."

"Not for long..." RJ readied his cue again 

RJ and Merrick were both in the heat of the game, playing to win. After about 15 minutes of intense gameplay, RJ managed to get in the lead. All he had to do was hit the final black billiard ball in whilst Merrick had one red ball.

"Your turn..." RJ said with a smirk 

_Merrick's final red ball was in an easy place to hit and like he did with previous balls, he hit it in easily, no sweat_ "Watch out, now we're tired."

"Well not for long." the black billiard ball was in an easy position to hit in the hole. He got up with a huge grin on his face and took the penultimate shot. The pressure must have got to him because he somehow missed the easy target. "Oh, that didn't go to plan-"

"My turn!" 

"Well, that ball is in a difficult position, doubt you'll get it in..." he said, taunting the silver wolf

Merrick just shook those comment off and focused on hitting the ball. He figured that a perfect ricochet off a wall would move it just enough that it would fall in. He took a deep breath and hit the white ball into the wall.

"You missed." he said with a laugh as he only saw the ball hit the wall and didn't see the rest.

Merrick just smirked and watched as the ball hit into the billiard table's wall hard and then ricocheted off it. His calculations were perfect, and it had just enough power to hit the final black ball in.

"I- wow..." RJ was astonished that he managed to pull off that shot. He hadn't seen a shot like that since his High school years. "That was amazing!"

"Good, huh?"

"You are the master!" RJ put down his cue

"Told ya! Merrick then saw the time on the clock, it was 8:30pm and he had somewhere to be. "Oh, look at the time..." he said as he also put down his cue

"Do you have somewhere to be?"

_He headed for the door but did not open it yet._ "No, not really but it's already starting to get dark and I don't want to head to the woods in the dark."

"Eh, that's understandable." he said as he kindly opened the door for him

"Well... it was nice meeting you RJ!" Merrick exclaimed with a bright smile

"Yeah... oh wait your Morpher!" RJ quickly rushed to the table Merrick ate at and grabbed his morpher. "Here you go!" 

_Merrick took his_ morpher." Thanks man, you know something... I might come back here if I'm ever in the neighbourhood, I like this place."

"I'm glad you do, and my place will be open any time... unless I'm busy-"

_He chuckled._ "Well thanks man, I hope to see you again!" Merrick held out his hand for RJ to shake

"I hope I will to." RJ smiled at him and gladly shook his hand

With that, Merrick was gone, out the door. RJ watched as the Lunar ranger's figure got smaller and smaller as he walked away from the pizza joint. One day the wolf friends will meet again, one day.


End file.
